Archive for the 'Mgmt' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

Opening weekend at Coachella 2014 was a star-studded turning point for the renowned festival, one that seemed to set this sun-baked paradise on a new path. Yet the encore replay disspelled that notion by retaining all that has been great about this endurance test for 15 years.

The first weekend played out like a private Hollywood party crashed and trashed by petulant teenagers. But this past go-’round felt like the real thing again: exciting and exhausting, blissful and beautiful, and all about the music, not the scene.

Here are 10 other reasons why the second bash was much better than the first:

We thought about sharing top picks for Coachella 2014, as we pretty much have since the desert bacchanal began in 1999. There’s certainly reason to get excited over OutKast and the Replacements, this year’s big reunions, and it would have been easy to blather on about how amazing Queens of the Stone Age should be or speculate who might join Pharrell Williams over the two weekends.

We could waste gobs of space debating ourselves over the high-billed inclusion of particular mainstream acts – will it be good or bad, for instance, to have Foster the People and Lorde so prominent in Day 2’s mix, and will Lana Del Rey be dreary or dreamy? But isn’t that why we’re going in the first place – to tell you all about how great or lame it is?

If you’re Indio-bound, you should have done your homework by now. And if you aren’t going (though you still could, with enough cash), what’s useful about reading recommendations of sets you can’t see (though you still could by watching online)?

A few extra Coachella-related shows had already snuck out, like Bryan Ferry’s April 15 performance at Club Nokia. But now organizer Goldenvoice has revealed the remainder of its slate of Indio attractions that will make smaller appearances throughout Southern California before, between and after the festival.

It’s broken down in three weeks of on-sales, with this Friday’s the biggest batch by far.

That includes the Afghan Whigs at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown on April 9, $30; Motörhead (fronted by Lemmy, above center) at Club Nokia on April 11, $36.50-$46.50; Bonobo, April 15 at the Glass House, $23; Temples with Drowners, April 15 at the Roxy, $15; Bombay Bicycle Club with Bear Hands and Royal Canoe, April 15, $29.50; the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, April 16 at the Echo, price unavailable; City and Colour with James Vincent McMorrow, April 17 at the Fox Theater in Pomona, $29.50; Mogwai with Majeure, April 17 at El Rey Theatre, $30; Neko Case (left) with the Dodos, April 17 at the Orpheum Theatre, $35; Adventure Club with Headhunterz, April 17 at Club Nokia, $25-$40; Dum Dum Girls, April 17 at the Roxy, $17; and Zoé, April 18 at the Glass House, $25-$30.

The Observatory in Santa Ana also scored a clutch of Localchella gigs, presented as separate-ticket doubleheaders. On April 15, Cage the Elephant command the main stage, with Juliette Lewis opening ($25), while Future Islands will play the Constellation Room ($15). On April 17, Crosses will take over in the larger hall ($25) and Temples and Drowners will appear in Constellation ($15).

There’s at least one thing most Coachella watchers will likely agree on: this 2014 lineup has no wow at all.

That’s a fairly bold statement to make, considering the opening-night main attraction for this year’s double-weekend spring festival in Indio is the first performance in more than a decade from OutKast. The celebrated hip-hop duo of Andre 3000 (above, center) and Big Boi largely disappeared from stages around the time their 2003 double-disc opus Speakerboxxx/The Love Below took home the Grammy for album of the year.

The other two headliners, Matthew Bellamy (left) and Muse in the middle and Win Butler (right) and Arcade Fire to close out the event, are hardly slouches – they’re among the most vibrant large-scale acts around. Plus, organizers at L.A. concert promoter Goldenvoice snagged the usual slew of rarities, from the long-awaited West Coast return of the Replacements and the desert debut of another important forebear, Bryan Ferry, to turns from Pet Shop Boys, the Afghan Whigs, Neutral Milk Hotel, even English punk novelty the Toy Dolls.

Certainly nothing to sniff at. But considering Arcade Fire’s booking was virtually a given (the Montreal band’s tour routing already revealed it was Indio-bound for the fourth time) and that the much-circulated rumor about OutKast’s reunion had all but been confirmed by Rolling Stone and the pair’s own Instagram photo, there isn’t really a big reveal in this roster that would cause many jaws to drop.

To fully appreciate the widening gulf between today’s regurgitated pop scene and the regenerating indie stars who abhor it, you need only compare two events happening simultaneously on either coast this past weekend.

Sunday night in New York, while millions watched at home and millions more incessantly tweeted elation and disgust, mainstream music’s reigning icons gaudily descended upon Barclays Center for the 30th ever-useless MTV Video Music Awards. Lady Gaga opened wearing next to nothing. Justin Timberlake briefly reunited with ’N Sync. Taylor Swift got caught telling her former One Direction boyfriend to shut up.

As for Miley Cyrus … well, you’ve undoubtedly heard about her twerking, tongue-wagging crimes against celebrity. Monday morning that was seemingly all anyone could talk about.

Except, that is, for the 30,000 or so who spent the weekend trudging across downtown's dusty Los Angeles State Historic Park for the 10th annual FYF Fest. Their magnetic, mostly mellow Sunday night was another world away, one where commercial appeal is original sin, Miley Cyrus is mentioned only ironically (if at all) and the closest thing to chart-scaling radio fare is Beyoncé’s younger sister Solange making like Madonna circa ’87.

Fitz and the Tantrums: With their second album, More Than Just a Dream, dropping earlier this month before they appeared at KROQ’s Weenie Roast (above), it was only a matter of time before these L.A. rock ’n’ soul favorites added a proper hometown show: July 27 at the Wiltern, with the Colourist opening. Tickets, $25-$27.50, go on sale Friday, May 31, at 10 a.m.

Also at that venue and also on sale at that time: Animal Collective, Baltimore’s acclaimed experimental outfit, still touring behind last year’s Centipede Hz, returns Oct. 21, with Dan Deacon opening, $25.

Plus, New Zealand ensemble the Naked and Famous, who are wrapping work in L.A. on their second effort, arrive at the art deco theater on Sept. 27, $30, after launching a 19-date North American run at House of Blues San Diego on Sept. 25, $25. (They come back Oct. 26 to play the Fox Theater in Pomona, $25-$35.)

Brian Wilson with Al Jardine and David Marks: Well, they can’t very well call themselves the Beach Boys, can they? Not while Mike Love’s got legal control of the name, anyway. So, as previously reported, the parts of the legendary California group who aren’t named Love or Bruce Johnston are touring on their own, with a Greek Theatre show slated for Oct. 20, $35-$75, on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.

August 8th, 2011, 11:30 am by PETER LARSEN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

You have to imagine that fromMGMT's perspective, the group's show at the U.S. Open of Surfing on Saturday looked pretty great: throngs of minimally clad fans packing the sand from the stage to the surf, the sun starting its downward slide to the horizon. All of that must have a made for a lovely tableau.

But if you weren't lucky enough to have a spot in the stands - say you were crushed into that crowd or pushed out to its furthest, wettest edges - well, the fan experience might have been kind of a drag.

That's perhaps the dilemma created by the increasing popularity of the U.S. Open's annual concert series, which wrapped up Saturday after headlining sets by Jimmy Eat World on Friday and the Sounds on Thursday: The better the bands, the bigger the crowds, but given that it's free, and there's no limit on the amount of booze and pot and cigarettes being consumed, at many times it's not the greatest crowd in which to (try to) watch the show.

Which is a shame when it comes to a terrific band like MGMT, whose psych-pop sounds are perfect for chilling out at the beach. In their late afternoon set they played most of the songs fans know best, among them "Time to Pretend," "The Youth," "Electric Feel" and "Weekend Wars," all from their acclaimed debut, Oracular Spectacular. They also tossed in a few cuts off their second album, such as "Song for Dan Treacy."

Of course, for the end of the show they saved their biggest hit, "Kids," a song covered at the U.S. Open of Surfing a year ago by Weezer. This time it got a proper performance (nothing against Weezer, of course) to the delight of the crowd, most of which finally snapped to attention at the instantly recognizable opening synth chords.

It's a testament to Weezer's continuing strength as a live act lately that Thursday night at Pacific Amphitheatre the band sounded as strong as it has at any time in the past half-dozen years, all while effortlessly delivering not a self-indulgent set filled with oddities but precisely the sort of show total pros should put on when they're playing next door to a county fair.

That is: they fired off hits, hits, nothing but hits.

OK, yes, they also included a couple covers (more on those in a moment) and twice as as many non-radio-driven ditties for die-hards. “Surf Wax America” and “My Name Is Jonas” don't exactly constitute digging deep - they're both standard-issue selections from this bunch. But “No One Else” and the evening's sole Pinkerton pick, “Pink Triangle,” though not entirely rare fare, are at least cuts that require more familiarity with Weezer than knowing which songs are permanently on KROQ's playlist.

In all other respects, however, this was a straight-up best-of, the rest of the 19-tune rundown consisting of singalongs that sucked in everyone – especially when Rivers Cuomo chose to hop into the crowd, which he did on three occasions. He spent most of the encore, in fact, propped atop seats near the soundboard between the lower and upper sections.

I've often seen King Nerd, the Brian Wilson of modern rock, saunter through venues the past few years, rarely with much security chasing after him, always happy to oblige a high-five or contend with fireworks of camera flashes. It's still so striking (and heartening) how Cuomo, clearly uncomfortable in his own skin back in his 20s, has grown self-assured as his 40s arrived. He hasn't let the cockiness of stardom consume him any more than his former jittery weirdness. Instead, he eliminated the arrogance that accompanied his rock-star posing a decade ago, when the success of the green Weezer album solidified both his and the band's reputation.

Foster the People certainly is a fitting name for a band that has been garnering much praise from both KROQ and music-fest aficionados since well before the release of its late-May major-label debut, Torches.

The hype started with the early 2010 release of the group's first single, "Pumped Up Kicks." That, along with scattered festival appearances at SXSW, Coachella, Sasquatch and the like, gave FTP enough clout to score a No. 1 slot on the rock charts with its first full-length album, subsequently propelling the quintet into a string of (mostly) sold-out small-venue gigs that just wrapped with two shows at El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. (The band already has two more surefire sell-outs planned for October at the larger Wiltern.)

Thursday night, during the first packed house at the venue, Foster the People appeared enlivened by the overwhelming display of local support: "I remember begging friends to come see my solo show at Molly Malone's," frontman Mark Foster said, just after opening the show with the infectious, keyboard-driven "Warrant." "There were only about 15 people there, so this is incredible. Thank you."

True, the house was full, but I doubt many who attended the kickoff returned for round two. That's not a jab at the quality of the music: songs like "Helena Beat," this night's encore, and main-set closer "Don't Stop (Color On the Walls)" -- both evoking sultry, psychedelic grooves akin to the best of the Dandy Warhols or MGMT -- are dynamic pop gems that served as perfect, dance-party-inducing send-offs. Rather, it's because the band only has about a dozen recorded songs under its belt, from which they pulled 11 for Thursday's performance, clocking in at just under an hour, including the encore. I can't imagine anyone paying double to have seen what likely was a repeat.

There are big doings ahead for Jimmy Eat World fans, as the Arizona band has both a free gig and a (so far) one-time-only full-album performance slated for the coming months.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its fourth album -- Bleed American, the July 2001 album that broke the band into the mainstream via the singles "Sweetness" and "The Middle" -- frontman Jim Adkins (pictured) and the group will perform the disc in its entirety Sept. 29 at the Wiltern Theatre. Presumably they'll round out the set with some other material ... maybe even some rarities? Guess we'll find out come fall.

Tickets, $37.50, go on sale Thursday, June 30, at 10 a.m., though a pre-sale for fan-club devotees and KROQ Street Team members is underway until Wednesday at 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, Jimmy is also one of three bands that have been chosen to headline the free shows on the sand during the annual U.S. Open of Surfing in early August. They will appear Aug. 5, with Dead Country warming up, while the Sounds and Walk the Walk perform Aug. 4 and MGMT and Surfer Blood close out the concert series on Aug. 6. All shows are from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Elsewhere, Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa has added a handful of new shows, including a set from Dntel (aka Jimmy Tamborello, one half of the Postal Service) on Aug. 2, also featuring the One AM Radio and Geotic. Tickets, $12, are on sale now at Ticketweb.com.